2024 Rule 5 Draft - Part 6 - Happy Roster Freeze Day!!!!!

 2:30 PM ET

All roster freeze day is on.  In it 2:30 ET and so far we have:

• No news from the Guardians
• No trades being announced in baseball
• Only a few teams (Nationals, Brewers Astros, A's, White Sox) making rostering announcements

It's still early but some interesting things:

• A's only 1 of 4 top 30 prospects to their roster.  Don't add #10 Denzel Clarke who has only risent to AA and is 24 years old.  Still, he has speed and could be kept as a 4th outfielder as the rest of his game develops.
• The White Sox add only 2 players, both top 30 guys (out of 3 who were R5 eligible) to their roster.  Their roster stands at 38 meaning they could clearly trade a veteran or 2 or 3 for multiple prospects, not even counting veterans they may DFA to make room.
• Houston adds only 1 of 4 of their top 30 R5-eliigible guys, The other 3 are interesting but not guys who you think would stick with a ML team for a whole year,

5:30 ET

Still no word from the Guardians, who tend to hold their cards close in these situations.  So likely we will hear from them late compared to other teams.

Recent developments on this roster freeze day:

• The Reds had no top 30 prospects who need to be protected from the Rule 5 but protected 2 prospects not in their top 30.
• A trade of two guys already on 40-man rosters sent Myles Straw clone Jose Siri to the Mets for RP Eric Orze.  It is possible that Siri will be non-tendered and that Orze would have been DFA'd by the Mets and so was a throw-away prospect for the Mets but may be useful to the opener-heavy Rays.  So, while it wasn't a Rule 5 trade it may have roster implications on roster freeze day.
• The Red Sox protected 2 of 5 of their top 30 prospects who were Rule 5 eligible
• The Cardinals added 2 players from their top 30 and 2 not on their top 30 and left 2 top 30 prospects off their roster today.  Ian Bedell a RHP was not protected and he may have Rule 5 value as a multi-inning reliever.
• Miami added 3 prospects to their 40 man including Deyvison De Los Santos who was selected in last year's Rule 5 by Cleveland only to be returned to Arizona and later traded to Miami in a deadline deal.  Miami also protected their other 2 R5-eligible top 30 prospects, exactly what you would imagine a rebuilding team might do.

More later!

6:30 ET

The long-awaited roster moves by the Guardians are in.  They have added the following players to their roster:

• Franco Aleman
• Doug Nikhazy
• Nic Enright
• Petey Halpin

They have also designated 3 players for assignment:

• Peter Strzelecki
• Connor Gillaspie
• George Valera

Instant Analysis

• The DFA of George Valera and inclusion of Petey Halpin is just weird.  It makes no sense.  Halpin repeated AA with really no improvement and profiles, at best, as a better defensive version of Will Brennan and, at worst, as Myles Straw, part deux.  Valera, on the other hand, has offensive potential while being very questionable in CF. 
• The inclusion of Aleman and Nikhazy was a given.
• The inclusion of Enright was my dark horse, given his AAA numbers last year.  I think he could step into Nick Sandlin's role tomorrow with maybe more K potential.
• The lack of inclusion of Ryan Webb, Aaron Davenport and Travis Denholm is, to me, very problematic.  These 3 guys compare very favorably to last year's R5 #1 pick, Mitch Spence.  Given the success Spence had for Oakland, since starting pitching is at such a premium in baseball, that it is highly likely that we lose 2 or even 3 of these guys to the R5 this year.  I also believe they have the talent to never come back to Cleveland.  While inclusion of Enright is problematic in light of leaving these 3 exposed to the Rule 5.  Relievers are a dime-a-dozen and Enright will just serve as a backup to a backup plan. Webb could easily be up by June 1st and effective.  The only thing I could see is that they think they will get something out of Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie next year.  I think that is a long shot and I think that one or both of them will be non-tendered in a few days, making the potential loss of Webb, Davenport and Denholm in the R5 more problematic.   Here's the bottom line: you draft 19 college pitchers in 2021.  You have to have an exit plan for these guys involving them either flaming out or getting something back in a trade.  If Cleveland's plan was to take the best couple from the draft and not worry about the rest, that s only a good plan if 'the rest' really suck.  That is not nearly the case with Webb, Denholm, Davenport or even Alaska Abney.  While it would have made life difficult if you kept Webb and Davenport, I think that McKenzie and Allen are done in Cleveland and not seeing that and setting yourself up to lose viable pitchers like Webb, Davenport, Denholm and Abney makes no sense, ESPECIALLY when you kept two minor league relief pitchers.

Normally I have some level of doom and gloom in my R5 posts.  But this year, I am MAJOR on the doom and gloom regarding Webb and Davenport and a little less on Denholm.  I am majorly dome and gloom on rostering Halpin and DFAing Valera, which I think is a totally stupid move and has no chance of EVER being a success for the Guardians.

One more thng: realize that Webb, Davenport, Denholm, Abney and all the rest of the players not rostered are now essentially untreadeable.  No one will give you anything since they can't be added to anyone's 40 man until after the Rule 5 draft. 

So, there it is.  More later!